I recently read a study released by 3 network on "Irish Businesses use of Twitter". The main findings are that:
- 69% use it to build an online community;
- 46% update twitter at least once a day;
- 80% believe "followers" are made up of potential customers;
- 97% believed that Twitter was growing in importance for Irish companies;
- Only 5% though believed it delivered a return of €5,000 or more.
So what does all this mean?
Findings of Survey
The main findings are of no real surprise. Businesses in Ireland are still getting to grips with a successful social media strategy. This is why, more than anything, the direct return seems so low. Also, twitter can often deliver a more indirect benefit to a company, as opposed to a direct sale from a tweet.
How we use Twitter
Like any new tool, it often takes time to discover how best to use it. Ten years ago many businesses jumped aboard the "website bandwagon" without really knowing why or what it was going to achieve. This is because it was relatively new. Secondly, the audience of people using websites today compared to 10 years ago, is greatly increased, and with a much improved broadband connection.
The similarities to that period with websites and social media tools today can not be ignored. The audience for twitter, while growing enormously in recent times from 475,000 to 7,000,000 from 12 months February 08 to 09, is still in its infancy. Many internet users either don't get Twitter as a concept, or feel that there is nothing on it of any great importance. For businesses in Ireland, who wish to use Twitter successfully, the challenge is to make it relevant as a communication tool to your target audience.
Getting there takes time
At the Search Engine Marketing Conference this year, one speaker spoke about websites as now only part of your "digital assets" along with your social media tools. Businesses always hate having to move to a "new way", especially after just getting their heads around the previous new way.What would be interesting to find out is the actual numbers of companies who don't use twitter. I would suggest the vast majority. As usual, they will come on board but at a later stage. When will this be? Generally, when they see a commercial success story!